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It’s the end of May, and that means one thing: prom season has officially begun. (Surely, those unlucky enough to live directly opposite a high school—as I was for two very loud years in Austin— are already aware of this.) For some, the mere thought of prom conjures John Hughes-esque memories of lacy dresses, blooming corsages, proud parents, and worshipful dates; for others (ahem, hello), prom was a concept best avoided entirely. Personally, I deeply vibed with the notion put forth in the Ilana Glazer-Michelle Buteau buddy comedy Babes that prom simply happens too early in life; after all, what is there to celebrate about high school?
I’m not ashamed to say I spent my prom night exactly the way I spent every other Saturday night of senior year: parked on my mom’s couch, eating takeout and watching Jeopardy and Chelsea Lately with my best friend before going to sleep at a reasonable hour. Though I was trying desperately to read as “too cool for prom” (and convincing absolutely nobody; again, I was a regular Jeopardy viewer), my heart still thrills at a good prom story, particularly when it comes courtesy of my colleagues.
Below, find eight Vogue staffers’ recollections of prom—and, of course, the photos they’ve saved and been generous enough to share here for posterity.
“Circa 2004, I went to Winter Formal with a girl friend (not a girlfriend) and another couple. We split a limousine and a plastic flask of Smirnoff and, it being the San Diegan suburbs, braved a wintry mix of clear skies and 60-degree weather. Everyone in our quartet understood clearly that there was really just one couple our party: the other boy and me. Bless those girls.
It’s ironic that the only person I still know from our Winter Formal quartet is actually the other boy’s date: a girl named Emily who went to a different high school and whom I met that night, with exquisite chestnut eyes. We all lost touch, but almost a decade later I remember seeing those same eyes in a music video, then a David Fincher movie, and then on a Marc Jacobs runway. Today, she’s better known as EmRata, but will always be Emily to me.”
“My senior prom dress was bought at the Fig Leaf boutique in Maywood, New Jersey, which was pretty much where ALL Bergen County girls got their prom dresses. Even though my prom was in June, I went in January to pick out and claim my dress. It was super important at my high school that we did not wear matching dresses, and the boutique was aware, so they would have a checklist with your name and the dress you picked so that they wouldn’t even show your dress to the other girls at your school. Because I went so early, I had my pick of the litter, but I always knew that I wanted my senior prom dress to be super classic and minimal so that I wouldn’t look back in 20 years and cringe at what I wore. (Also, I did the sequin-embellished thing for junior prom.) I chose a navy blue halter-neck Jovani dress that I styled with just a simple pair of nude Steve Madden open-toed heels. My hair was blown out at the Dry Bar for that Matilda Djerf-esque look, except the weather was so humid on my prom day that my hair instantly fell flat.
I had a bit of drama with my dress. Two people, one from my grade and the other a junior, tried to get the same dress in different colors the week of my prom. I instantly vetoed that. While the girl in my grade was understanding, the junior was more reluctant to switch dresses, but she was eventually convinced by other juniors that it wouldn’t be fair to ruin my prom day. Looking back, it was very silly, but with only 300 people in my grade and around 1,500 different prom dresses available from the dress catalog, I would still do it again.”
“Senior prom was the pinnacle of high school fashion, and I, unsurprisingly, took the milestone occasion very seriously. In 2014, my style inspiration was none other than Gossip Girl’s Serena van der Woodsen. I was captivated by her Hervé Léger bondage mini dresses for a bodega run, and her edgy takes on the Constance Billard school uniform. In the Season 2 premiere, van der Woodsen wore a Greek goddess-inspired white gown to a summer soirée in the Hamptons, and I was determined to recreate her look in my favorite color for prom. After finding a dress with an almost identical silhouette in the perfect sky blue hue online, I swiftly purchased it and took it to a local tailor to bring my dream to life. Opting for a beachy half-up, half-down hairstyle instead of a loose updo, I added some cheap gold jewelry to complete the vision. Looking back, this night marked a new chapter of my love affair with fashion.”
“Our prom was on a boat that sailed around the Marina del Rey harbor, and I think we were all just itching to get to the after-party. I still hold a lot of fondness for pre-prom, though: there was a custom Snapchat filter (dating myself with this one), and we got to bring all of our friends and families together for photos before heading off on a party bus—outfitted with a stripper pole, naturally. I still have my dress from Shareen Vintage in LA, and even recently had it shortened so I can rewear it for weddings. If I were to do prom all over again, I’d tell myself not to curl my hair (it won’t hold) and not to worry about the boy I like (he’s gay).”
“I went to prom twice (flex!)—first, in 11th grade, with my then-boyfriend who was a senior. I wore a sea-foam green strapless dress with a handkerchief hem and pale gold lace overlay that I got at BCBG in SoHo and loved so much that I would try it on at night for a few weeks before the big event. For my own prom, I went with my best friend Matthew, as my different then-boyfriend was older and definitely did not want to go to a prom. My mom and I had gone to Paris earlier that spring for spring break, and she took me to the Clignancourt flea market for the first time. We had saucisson at the weird, wonderful Édith Piaf café, and then found a great vintage clothing stall where I got a French navy officer’s jacket with faded gold passmenterie and a 1920s bead-embellished flapper shift dress—also sea-foam green—that was just a little too big, but I didn’t care. I paired it with costume Victorian drop earrings that my mom found at one of those odd fake jewelry shops on Madison, and strappy gold sandals. I got a coiled updo that was soft and lovely, though in retrospect, I wish I’d pinned the one curl of my hair up instead of it covering my eyes in every photo… but if that’s my only regret I think I’m OK.
I still have that dress and look forward to wearing it again. I did wear it often in college, when I went to nice events—for example, two years later, when my mom and I went to the premiere of a little movie called The Devil Wears Prada.”
“Prom was a big deal at my high school. We had one both junior and senior year—and if you were lucky, you could’ve been invited to another school’s prom. Ahead of my senior prom, someone in our class made an Instagram account for all the girls to (anonymously) share their dresses—to avoid anyone accidentally matching. (Spoiler: no one ended up matching.) But I do remember the dress hunt being the most important part, at least for me. For what was available in 2016, I was happy with what I wore to prom, and my friends all looked fabulous, too, of course.”
“I went to two proms my senior year, and I remember being quite nervous, only to be wildly disappointed with how boring they were. Honestly, getting ready was (and has always been!) the best part. On glam, I had a makeup artist come to my house—a first. I distinctly remember her applying my first set of strip lashes, and telling my mom that I felt like “I would fly away.” My most important prom memory, though, is the debacle around my dresses. For my date’s prom, I wore a black gown that I loved, but my zipper broke on the way to pre-prom dinner—requiring several safety pins to keep it in place for the night. For my school’s prom, on the other hand, I naturally ordered the dress of my dreams from a scam website (that was soon after featured on the news!). So, a few days before prom night, my mom and I took a trip to David’s Bridal to pick up the pink tulle princess number you see here.”
“I got my tux from the most iconic Men’s Wearhouse: all black with a zebra-print bow tie to match my date’s dress, lol. We had our prom at the Memphis Zoo and all I remember was dancing away in lovely 90-degree weather and getting an ice cream bucket crown at the end of the night.”
